The LHC is enjoying a confluence of twos. On 5 August the total integrated luminosity delivered in 2011 passed 2 fb–1; the peak luminosity has risen to over 2 × 1033cm–2s–1; and fill number 2006 lasted for 26 hours, delivering an integrated luminosity of 100 pb–1.
Following the period of machine development that started at the end of June, the decision was taken to continue running with 50 ns bunch spacing and the maximum of 1380 bunches. Increases in luminosity must come from increasing the number of protons per bunch, or decreasing the transverse beam size at the interaction point. The size of the beams coming from the injectors has now been reduced to the minimum possible, bringing an increase in the peak luminosity of about 50%.
